Foreword

Programming can be difficult, especially when you have a challenging project. Therefore, when this project is crucial to someone's business, being the right programmer is a gift to your sponsor. As a business owner, as well as a programmer myself, I can surely say that William Duarte is this kind of blessed programmer we rarely find.

Some years ago, I needed to change the enterprise resource planning (ERP) of my company, on account of the strict Brazilian fiscal regulations. At that time, we had a fully internally developed, private label credit card. It was mandatory that it worked in a totally new environment, seamlessly integrating with a new point-of-sale (POS) system. Following two years of trial and error, of using the services of huge consultancy firms and wasting a lot of money, I was about to give up. That is when I met William Duarte.

In a casual meeting with Mr. Duarte's former employer, I told him about the difficulties in getting our credit card system to operate properly. He introduced me to William, who, in a quick chat, told me he was quite confident that not only could he do what I needed, but he could do it fast. In total disbelief, I asked him to prove it and he just smiled and said: "Fine! I can make it work in a test environment in a couple of weeks. Just wait and see." I felt like laughing when I heard that. How could someone do something that a whole team of programmers couldn't do—and in a matter of weeks, not months? "He will never do it," I thought. However, to my surprise, he did it. The test was a success; thus, I quickly signed a contract with his former company. Nowadays, my credit card system is up and running perfectly, and, fortunately, William Duarte works for me.

If you need to improve your Delphi programming performance, I strongly feel that William can help you with this task. You are in good hands. I have witnessed countless times William's skills and how useful good Delphi programming is for real-life challenges. Therefore, if you are seeking a solid foundation for successful Delphi projects, the hunt is over.

Enjoy your reading!

Rafael Sampaio

Retail executive and owner of Impecável Roupas, a Brazilian chain of stores.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

I met William at the annual Embarcadero Conference in Brazil where he was signing copies of one of his previous books. He gave me a copy, but unfortunately, I don't read Portuguese, but I appreciated the book, and luckily, source code is the universal language. He and I became friends, and I was happy to have his expertise and enthusiasm as part of the Embarcadero MVP Program. Most recently, he became an MVP Regional Coordinator for Brazil.

I like the project-oriented nature of this book. It tackles different types of projects with different technologies, such as in the first chapter, where it shows how to capture images, apply filters, and share the images. This is common functionality in many social media applications, and something that Delphi makes easy. I frequently use the basics of this as a quick demo when introducing someone to Delphi's productivity.

The REST client functionality is another favorite feature of mine. I spend a lot of time, as I'm sure most developers do, integrating with web services all over the web. Delphi's REST client library makes it easy to connect to these services and work with the data in your applications. Beyond the REST client library that comes with Delphi, there are numerous specialized REST components, including the Enterprise Connectors and the TMS Web Controls Pack, which are turnkey options for connecting to many different individual web services.

Database access is something that was a key component of the very first release of Delphi. While it isn't, strictly speaking, part of the language, having good database connectivity is part of what defines Delphi. The new FireDAC database access framework is simply amazing. I seriously wish it was part of Delphi years ago, when I was doing more database development. So, be sure you check out William's chapter on databases!

I've said it before, but it continues to be more and more true—it is a great time to be a Delphi developer, especially when you have a copy of a great book on Delphi projects, like this one!

Jim McKeeth

Chief Developer Advocate for Embarcadero Technologies.

Nampa, Idaho, USA